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Meal Prep Monday: Crudité Salad with Chipotle Hummus

2/05/2018 08:02:00 AM

Crudité salad with chipotle hummus

It's been pretty warm in Melbourne lately. So warm that I often don't want to be in the kitchen, let alone turn the oven or the stove on. This meal prep salad was the perfect solution! It's super easy, with no cooking required, just some light chopping. I literally made these in the air-conditioned comfort of my lounge room, at the coffee table whilst watching reruns of The Nanny. Yessss. So without further ado, here's today's Meal Prep Monday post for you: a crudité salad with chipotle hummus.

I was inspired by this ensalada pin (I'm a Pinterest noob and can't quite figure out who created it and where it came from or how it popped into my feed, but either way, it looked awesome, and I swiftly pinned it to my "Meal Prep" board).

The ingredients are all very simple, and easily found at the supermarket - we've got a base of salad leaves, topped with julienned carrot, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, chickpeas and hummus, and garnished with pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds. I'm calling it a crudité salad because of all the fresh crunchiness, combined with the dip!

Crudité salad with chipotle hummus

You could definitely make your own hummus, but I bought a pre-made, chipotle-flavoured one. (I'd never tried it before, but thankfully it was delicious!) If you can't find chipotle hummus, I'd suggest stirring some chipotle chilli sauce (or regular chilli sauce) through some plain hummus, or switching it up completely and picking another flavoured hummus. I'd never thought about it before, but when I went shopping for ingredients, there were literally dozens of different flavoured hummuses at the supermarket! I had no idea flavoured hummus was such a big thing.

I made five bowls - one for Sunday night, four for the week - but it's quite a light salad, so I think the amount of ingredients listed could make four bowls. Just trust your appetite.

Cruditeé salad with chipotle hummus

I absolutely loved this salad, and was excited about eating it every day throughout the week! The lightness of the salad was perfect for the warm weather (and my sedentary job - anything too carb heavy sends me straight to sleep!) There was a great combination of textures - the refreshing crunch of the carrot and cucumber, the juicy sweet cherry tomatoes, the mealy and hearty chickpeas, the creamy avocado, and the crunch from the sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds. And of course, these were all brought together by the spicy chipotle hummus. I don't think chipotle's quite as big here as in the States and Latin America, but I'm glad it's becoming more widespread. I adore the smoky heat it brings!

Let's talk dietary characteristics! This salad is vegetarian, vegan, grain and gluten free, and low-carb. (Are chickpeas "carbs"? Even so, this salad is certainly lower in carbs than most of the standard takeaway options near my work). On the more positive side, it's full of good fats from the avocado and vegetarian protein and fibre from the chickpeas and hummus! Apart from enjoying the taste, I loved getting in so many fresh vegetables for my lunch - I felt very virtuous and it set me up for more healthy eating, woop woop.

Method
Divide the salad leaves between four serving bowls or containers.
Top with the chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, carrot, cucumber and avocado.
Squeeze generously with lemon juice, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. (Make sure you get the avocado slices well covered by the lemon juice).
Divide the chipotle hummus between the bowls.
Sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds.
Makes 4-5